Chapter Eighteen #2
“I see,” he replied, mouth forming a grim line.
“If Keller won’t come to us, we’re going to have to go to him.”
Aaron’s eyes widened. “We? As in—”
“Me and you. Us.”
For a moment, neither of us spoke and I waited for Aaron to catch up on everything I was proposing. I rested my hands against the Kevlar panels on his wide chest.
“That’s crazy. You’re fucking crazy. You know how many men they have in there, right?”
“I’m aware, but we’re out of options. Death is staring us in the face whichever way we turn. I believe this is the avenue that has the least chance of it catching up to us,” I said, holding eye contact.
“Shit,” he hissed, running a hand through his hair as a muscle twitched in his jaw. “How the fuck has storming into the Tren de Cobra headquarters become the least likely way to end up dead?”
“Beats me.” I shrugged with a grin. “I can’t force you to join me, but—”
“You don’t need to force me,” Aaron interrupted, expression serious. “I’ll do it. It’s my fault we’ve ended up in this mess to begin with. If I’d just left things well enough alone…”
I flapped my hand. “We can point fingers later. If we survive this kamikaze mission, we can face whatever happens next together too.”
“I couldn’t ask you to do that,” Aaron mumbled.
“Good job you’re not asking then, hm?”
He laughed with exasperation. “You are fucking crazy.”
“I have been told once or twice.” I shrugged. “So, what do you say? Are you up for this?”
Aaron scrubbed a hand down his face. “When do we move out?”
“Tonight. I don’t expect the darkness to do much for us once guns start blasting, but maybe we’ll have a slight edge with the element of surprise? Our odds are so low, we need to take any advantage we can.”
“That’s reassuring, thanks,” he replied sarcastically.
I simply grinned at him over my shoulder as I heaved my own tactical gear from the wardrobe where I’d stashed it.
“Relay and Hangman should be here within the hour. We didn’t see much point in moving the tech until we knew what we were going to do, but Relay will be able to assist us much easier if he’s close by. ”
Aaron’s face paled a little and I sniggered.
Clearly, the idea of finally meeting my other partners set him on edge.
I couldn’t say I blamed him, but if he was going to run with me, he’d have to get used to it sooner or later.
I tried not to think too hard on how it was likely not to matter much after this mission was over anyway…
It was like some sort of sixth sense. An hour or so later, both Aaron and I kitted up, passing the time by cleaning our guns, I heard the tell-tale rumble of suitcases. My hands faltered, head whipping up.
“That’s them,” I muttered, getting up and rushing to the door.
By the time I reached the peephole, our new neighbours were out of view, but I heard a key crunching in the lock and the low drone of voices as they let themselves into the room next to ours.
I paced nervously, eyes glued to my phone.
It had barely rung before I was answering it.
“You’re here,” I gasped, stomach fluttering when Freddie laughed.
“You really are incredible, you know that? We’re in the room next door, but I’ve got a lot of setup—”
I didn’t wait to hear the rest of his sentence. I checked the peephole and once I was sure the corridor was clear, I gestured to Aaron.
“Come on. I’ll introduce you.”
“O-oh, I don’t—” he spluttered, raising his palms.
“Don’t be a pussy.” I smirked, skipping across the room and yanking him to his feet by the hand. Without another word, I snatched up our key and bustled out into the corridor.
My knuckles hadn’t even landed before the door was whisked open.
“Jugs.”
I threw my arms around Theo’s neck. He caught me easily and I was reminded anew of just how huge he was.
The embrace lasted all of a few seconds before I was pushing past him into the hotel room.
My heart lurched as I laid my eyes on Freddie.
He grinned at me and I fell into him, grabbing him by his ears and pressing a kiss to his mouth.
“Hey, hey,” he laughed between kisses. “Easy! I’ve missed you too, but—”
I silenced him with another firm kiss.
“You two, rein it in,” Theo grumbled. “We’ve got company.”
Freddie and I parted and a smirk worked its way onto my face as I spotted Theo with his arm around a very nervous-looking Aaron. Nothing like jumping in at the deep end, I supposed.
“Relay, Hangman – this is Agent Dixon,” I said, cuddling into Freddie. “He’s been taking good care of me whilst we’ve been apart, right?”
I’d never seen Aaron so red. “I mean, uh, I don’t— What? Yes, wait, no!”
“Breathe, man,” Theo laughed, clapping his hand on the shoulder he held onto. “We’re all in on this. It’s cool.”
Freddie reached around me, still in his arms, to extend a hand to Aaron. Dixon blinked, taken aback for a moment before stretching forward to shake it.
“Nice to meet you at last, Agent Dixon,” Freddie said, a knowing glint in his eye. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”
“Shit, really?” Aaron groaned, looking like he wanted the ground to swallow him up.
“All good things, I promise,” Freddie teased. He was enjoying this, I could tell. That was a good sign. “Now, I hate to be ‘that guy’, but I do actually have a lot of work to do.”
I rolled my eyes playfully. “Oh, come off it. You love to be ‘that guy’.”
Freddie smirked, releasing me to undo the clasps on his suitcase. He opened it up, revealing all manner of wires and hardware. Aaron’s eyes widened, and seemingly forgetting his nerves, he stepped forward.
“Holy shit, that’s a lot of tech,” he muttered.
“You haven’t seen anything yet,” Freddie replied. “Are you into this sort of thing?”
“Absolutely. I mean, I haven’t seen a setup like this before, but—”
I had already zoned out and Theo caught my eye, looking just as glazed over and bored as I was.
I grinned and made my way into his arms. He squeezed me tightly before stooping to slant his mouth over my own.
In typical Theo fashion, it didn’t remain chaste for long and I hummed with enjoyment.
It took me a moment too long to realise the chatter had ceased behind us.
When I parted from Theo, I glanced back over my shoulder. Aaron was staring unabashedly.
“You’ll get used to that,” Freddie said, deadpan. He returned to unpacking his case.
I caught Aaron’s eye. He still looked uneasy, but some of the tension had left his shoulders and that had hope blooming in my belly. Maybe all of this could work out after all… Y’know, aside from the mess I’d have to clear up with The Guild first.